Customer Reviews

Odditorium Or Warlords of Mars

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I don't buy the whole pre- and post-Dig argument, that the Dandy Warhols are a different band after the documentary just because of the exposure they received. I still hear them making generally the same kind of groovy, loose music they were making in the late '90s. Sure they continue to try out new ideas, but we wouldn't want or expect them to put out the same exact CD ten times, would we? I particularly enjoyed the new songs "Everyone Is Totally Insane" and "Down Like Disco." This may not be their best work ever, but the Odditorium is still worth a visit. (However, it is not a 5-star album... For those who rate every CD they like as 5 stars, how do you distinguish between the good, the excellent, and the truly awesome? If all are 5 stars, what's the difference between them? Five stars should be reserved for enduring classics.)

The Dandy Warhols are bred from a rare seed in today's music scene. One where you put your artistic integrity and fans over the quick sale and the glitz and glamour of MTV. To be perfectly honest, to see The Dandys in anything larger than a club would be a contradiction in terms. They are the essence of a fan's band and this is evident during their live shows when they play for 3 hours and take several audience requests (let's see Coldplay do that). With this in mind you have to see "Odditorium or Warlords of Mars" as the next logical step in their evolution. Those of us that were with them from the beginning remember the 8 minute dronings of "Dick" off The Dandy's debut LP or the nearly 30 minute 3 part drug rave "It's A Fast Driving Rave Up With The Dandy Warhols", so for us the new tunes with their excessive length and spaced out chords are no suprise. However the new generation Dandy fans could find themselves at a loss for words. 2003's "Welcome To The Monkey House" presented a whole new Dandy Warhols to the nation, one that was into creating catchy little pop hooks and making colorful tv friendly videos. That was not the band you thought you knew. "Odditorium" IS The Dandy Warhols.

As for the album itself it is a difficult listen at first and the song lengths could make you yearn for the skip button on your cd player, however upon repeated listens you will find whole new depths to the music that seem to grow with each listen. "Love Is The New Feel Awful" and "Everyone Is Totally Insane" are up there with "BE IN" and "Bohemian Like You" as some of the best stuff they've ever done. Yes, the album does drag and lack in parts "A Loan Tonight" is not a very good song and "The New Country" although cute and humorous would have been better served as a B-Side. But even with these short comings this album does not deserve the bad rep it is getting from the reviewers. All the major magazines lambasted this record as a faliure but we Dandy fans know different. Give this album a shot and you won't be disappointed The Dandy Warhols are a dying breed so let's support them and the artistic prowess or else all we'll be left with is "Fall Out Boy" and "Three Doors Down". Personally I'd rather be deaf.

Spotlight Tracks - Love Is The New Feel Awful, Everyone Is Totally Insane, All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey

Disappointing Tracks - A Loan Tonight, The New Country, Colder Than The Coldest Winter Was Cold

A great, classic neo-psychedelic Dandy Warhol's album. This is music that take somewhere and asks for something in return. Do you really think Courtney Taylor thinks that your average casual pop music listener is into 7-9 minute long space-out/jazz/noise jams? Or the semi-retarded, affected/effected vocal style of A Loan Tonight? No? Obviously this album is not meant for you unless you're willing to pull out of your comfort zone, shut your pie-hole and listen.

This albums sounds fresh and loose..like it was recorded in the band's practice space when they weren't paying attention...oh yeah, it kind of was.

Its too bad that this type of music will not be popular...they're going to lose a lot of fans on this one...but you know what? They never really got it anyway.

Let's face it, the state of the music is pretty bad, the last best selling bands were crap (Creed, Bizkit so on). Since R.E.M. got popular (and then unpopular at least in the US) and since alternative got to the radio through Nirvana (in the way creating some crappy "alternative bands" that undertook "serious" subjects with a stupid approach) the mainstream has been full of formulistic, unimaginative and unchallenging songs. As bands got better taste and more creative (such as Pearl Jam, Radiohead) they lost popularity. The only recent relieve we've had is the incursions into mainstream of "vintage" sound bands (Strokes, Interpol, Hives, White Stripes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) and of some indie bands (Modest Mouse, Flaming Lips and to some extent the Dandy Warhols themselves and their friends/rivals Brian Jonestown Massacre) (And these are already generating some crappy copycats lacking original message).

If you expect to judge this album (or any good one) by this standards you'll think it is too long, too derivative, too hard to listen, too unfocused. Hell, by those standards only Creed or Puddle of Mud would be acceptable... And that dear sirs would be the end of Rock & Roll. Rock & Roll is not supposed to be safe and monotonous, it is supposed to be challenging and different... Its not supposed to tell you the same thing all the time, it is supposed to show you new things, take different perspectives, help you realize the world is bigger than you thought. And at the same time it is supposed to be fun, it is ridiculous to take yourself too seriously you won't be able to change if you do. Hey this record lives up to these other standards and is awesome.

Enjoy it!

Throw away the opening Bill Curtis talk garbage and for 10 songs you have as good as this band gets. The last two droning tracks sound like the best of Xymox and that's not good for this band.

I don't understand why this band works so hard at being clever but then I don't understand a lot of things. The strongest cuts for me are Love Is The New Feel Awful (21st Century shoe gazer riff in my little mind) All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey (nicely clever) and Down like disco (as good as the strongest stuff from Welcome to the Monkey House).

Like I said the first 10 tracks make it a worthy successor to Welcome to the Monkey House-One of my favorite all time albums- the last two tracks take the droning noise way too seriously and drag it down for me.

Oh, and ef rolling stone. One star? They have the worst website in America anyway. Annoying Pop-ups all over the place, commercial only music, their reviews are dumber than mine.

I must confess that I had a great deal of concern about whether this new Dandy Warhols' album was going to be any good or not. First, there was their last album, Monkey House, which marked a significant departure from the typical Dandy Warhol sound, and which, in retrospect, was somewhat weak. Secondly, there was the spoken intro to this which I listened to on their website, and which is unbelievably lame. It's not humorous or ironic or even interesting and is the type of thing that Van Halen or Blink 182 or some other horrible band would probably think was hilarious. And of course, there was a pretty bad review. So yeah, I was concerned. The Dandies have been my favorite rock band since about Come Down, and I really wasn't anxious to witness yet another life-long hero take another discouraging pratfall.

But I shouldn't have worried. This is a great album, their best since Come Down, and it's maybe better than that. Gone is the pretension of "Monkey House," with the silly Duran Duran fops at the helm, and gone is the over-reaching attempt at rock immortality exhibited in "13 Tales." Sure, both of those albums have their moments, but in this one, the Dandies finally return--exclusively--to what they do best: psychedelia and hard-rock and all the areas in between. Here they do it unapologetically and relentlessly and without any side ventures. If you liked "Come Down"; if you like The Velvet Underground (and get a clue, the name of the band is the Dandy Warhols), the Stones of Let it Bleed or Led Zeppelin III; if you like Brian Jonestown and Jesus and Mary Chain; if you like beaty music built on a foundation of acoustic guitar, with electric guitars, synthesizers and horns as embellishment, you will love this. It is, to me, absolute bliss.

A perfect example is, "Love is the New Feel Awful," the first song on the album. It starts with the basics: beat, bass and drum, getting you into the groove, and sure enough, here it comes: the whacked-out, cool-sounding keyboard (or maybe distorted guitar). You are there, and quick. The next song, "Easy," is interesting because it begins as if it were an outtake from Monkey House, with it's synchopated, disco-type beat. But about half-way through they abandon this canned beat in favor of the classic Dandy sound: hook-driven, acoustic rock. It is a welcome, delightful change, and it is almost as if they are making a statement: Enough of this.

The rest of the album, albeit with a few minor weak points, is superb. "Smoke It," might be the best hard rock song they've ever done--no small achievement for a band with "Boys Better," "Bohemian Like You," and, "We Used to be Friends," under their belt--but at about the same moment you start to digest this, "Down Like Disco," starts playing, and it suddenly occurs to you that it might be the SECOND best hard rock tune they've ever done! They finally unleash the drummer on these songs--and other songs--as well. This adds greatly to their sound, and it's about time. He's surprisingly--or unsurprisingly--very, very good.

"All the Money," starts off as a classic Dandy song, peppy and bouncy with a great horn, and with Taylor-Taylor sounding typically goofy and sardonic. But atypically, and you have to listen for it, it ends on a bit of a somber note. The music business seems to have made Mr. Taylor-Taylor a bit world-weary; perhaps more mature is a better way to describe it. This is not unwelcome.

Another wonderful piece is, "There is Only This Time," a gentle little piece of beauty similar to "Green," "Orange," or, "Whipping Tree," from Come Down. As she did in those pieces, Zia's touch on the keyboard is nothing less than sublime, and it is a thrill to hear that they've gone back to doing this kind of thing.

There are, as mentioned, a couple of weak moments. "Love is the New Feel . . .," at nine minutes (!) does go on a few minutes too long, and the last song, "A Loan Tonight," maybe wasn't necessary. On the other hand, anybody who knows anything about the Dandies knows that they often like to end their albums with a lengthy bit of overindulgence, so this shouldn't exactly be a surprise.

But everything else is just wonderful. This is a great album. At least for the time being, they've given up their effort to redefine their sound, and gone back to what it is they love to do, and to that which made most of us love them in the first place. A very, very fine effort.

As to the Rolling Stone review, and with all due respect, I would simply say that it is yet another obvious indication that this magazine remains moribund in irrelevance.

i normally don't read album reviews at all. but i had to seek out some reviews for 'odditorium' because i kept hearing from people that it was a really bad album - and i had just bought a dandy's album called 'odditorium' that i loved. were there two albums released by the same band under the same name? WHAT WAS GOING ON?

but no, what i learned was that people had seen Dig! and hadn't thought that the dandys were quite brilliant enough to be neurosurgeons. the reviews were, for the most part, biting. but, almost every negative comment about the album that i read was coupled to a referece to a scene from Dig! i loved Dig!, and was impressed by how honestly the dandys were portrayed. i thought that they came across as a group that liked to rock out, were insecure about themselves, and, like quite a few good people out there, weren't too terribly bright. they are, after all, a rock n roll band. sounds about like what i'd expect.

on the album itself: i love this album. now, keep in mind that i do enjoy long songs (my fav by far on monkey room was (you come in) burned), so maybe that explains why my opinion differs so much from others'. but i think it grooves. i don't even know how many times i've listened to 'easy', and i only love it more. 'all the money..' is a fantastic rock song, and i especially dig how heavy it can rock without using the lower register much. and i think 'a lone tonight' is fantastic - at times driving, at times spacey, all with the same one-note steady-quarters riff. now, this album isn't perfect - i could do without the spoken word intro, and generally skip past 'the new country'. but there's so much good groove on this album, those spots hardly ruin the experience for me.

Just don't try to judge this album before having listened to it less than five-six times... It might seem boring in some points, but -believe me- it's not. Just listen at this awesome record simply doing some other things, just let the music fill up the room where you're into.

It's pretty clear that the sound it's the Dandy-copyrighted one that reminds us of the great moments of Thirtheen Tales.
"Holding Me Up" deals with acoustic guitars and ends with two wonderful minutes of melting voices with music, then suddenly comes the trilogy of jewels "Everyone Is Totally Insane" (kind and strong guitar, excellent vocals...), "Smoke It" (plenty of unpleasant and breathtaking Dandy pop-rock), "Down Like Disco" (What a voice! What a suffered and well-made guitar riff...). These songs are worth the entire price of the album. Let's not forget "All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey", dealing with a blend of trumpet and acoustic guitars which is really "musically" smart...
The first songs are meaningful too: "Love Is The New Feel Awful" (Who else can sing like that? Who else can connect all the instruments this way?) and "Easy" (Relaxed and soft, introducing The Bass and ending with a clever trumpet).
The ending tracks ("There Is Only This Time" - "A Loan Tonight") reminds us of the ballads of the past albums, flourishing and going on for minutes simply dealing with musical experiments and the usual but always renewed vocal parts...

What else? The Dandy Warhols' fan knows already the merits and the value of this album, it only remains to warmly prompt this record to everybody seeking Refinement and Oddity in Music.

Wayyyyy self-indulgent. Diehard fans will love it of course. But the rest of us that liked the witty and wry lyrics of previous efforts will only be marginally amused this time around. The music is worse than the lyrics (I am sorry to say because I like this band) but they could have learned a thing or two how to make long tracks interesting if the band listened to Stereolab. THAT's a band that can make a 7 minute song. Calling the music "dark" doesn't make this unfocused CD somehow better.

WARNING TO ALL READERS- I couldn't give a you know what about the documentary! Let's talk about this album compared to the others, ok? Thank you sooooooooo much.

If you are like most Dandy fans, you know that Dandy's Rule was a good start, but the quintessential Dandy's album is Come Down. THAT is the one that put the Warhols on the map, and with damn good reason. It's got a cool, trippy, spacy, sexy sound- lush atmoshperes but that still in its own way rocks hard but that you can dance to. For a lot of younger people- this record is almost worshipped and carries a sacred reputation. (For any of you older fans, if you own the Cult's album Love (also a new band's second effort) you "get" what i'm talking about.) And 13 Tales was cool, but it lacked the dark sexiness of it's predecessor. Sure, Bohemian Like You" kicked butt, but it sounded more like The Rolling Stones than the Dandy Warhols. And Monkey House was just CRAP. Period. You didn't buy that one? Didn't even want to DOWNLOAD that one? You're not alone. (I do hear, however, that the Monkey House cd makes for a good frisbee or coaster for the kitchen table...)
Thank GOD for this album, an older, wiser companion piece to Cone Down. Odditorium is THE record for those of us who've been waiting YEARS for someone to put out a cool, hip record with that Come Down vibe (how many years HAS it been?) Hey Dandy's- sorry you took so long to put out a winner, but i'll take it. And I'm not mad atcha. Welcome back.